Agency Seeks to Quell Cell Phone Rumors

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER

The Associated Press
Friday, October 12, 2007; 1:13 PM

WASHINGTON -- An e-mail warning consumers that cell phone numbers will soon be released to telemarketers is making the rounds again, and government officials have a key detail they'd like to add: it's totally bogus.

The e-mails say that recipients must add their cell phone numbers to the federal government's Do Not Call registry by a certain deadline in order to avoid being deluged by telemarketing calls.

But there is no deadline, cell phone numbers aren't about to be released to telemarketers and it is already illegal for most telemarketers to call mobile phones, the Federal Trade Commission said Friday.

"This is an urban legend that will not die," Katz said, requesting that recipients stop forwarding it to others.

After a large outcry by Congressmen and citizens, the FTC has decided to hold off removing phone numbers that were registered on the national Do Not Call list five years ago in 2003.

The original regulation mandated that numbers would remain for five years and then the consumer would need to re-register or the number would be "purged" from the list (database) and telemarketers could begin to call those numbers again!

This is great news for consumers, not so much for telemarketing firms.

Washington is sometimes a never land where normal people with normal lives suspend belief and go after 12 year old boys because they have nothing better to do; and because they have nothing positive to offer our nation.

Is this where American politics has plummeted?

If you don't already know, the Democrats asked a young boy named Graeme Frost to respond to the President's veto of the children's health care program, AKA SCHIP.

Frost is the 12-year-old from Baltimore who delivered the Democrats' reply to a radio address by President Bush in September. The seventh-grader pleaded -- in vain,
it turned out -- that the president not veto Congress's $35 billion
expansion of the children's health care program known as SCHIP. A car
crash in December 2004 left two of Halsey and Bonnie Frost's children
comatose, Graeme with a brain stem injury and Gemma, his sister, with a
cranial fracture.

The kids were treated, thanks to SCHIP. The Frosts spoke out so the public would know that real people lie behind the acronym.

He has been trashed by the GOP and the right wing blogosphere. A 12 year old boy.

This is what happens when a political party and a system has nothing left of value to say to the country.

This is also why so many in America are turned off by politics, politicians, and Washington.

No one is actually solving problems that all Americans care about, regardless of party:

Healthcare costs

Public safety

Education

Security of our nation

Social Security

Energy costs and supply

Job security

etc..

The point is, both parties are doing this. Instead of actually sitting down and working together to get the tough problems resolved, it is easier (and you can raise more money) simply to shout at each other and, in this case, bring down a 12 year old boy.

A 12 year old boy.

For what?

Because he was not, in some people's eyes, "poor enough".

E.J. Dionne has it right:

The real issue here is whether uninsured families with earnings similar
to the Frosts' need government help to buy health coverage. With the
average family policy in employer-provided plans now costing more than
$12,000 annually -- the price is usually higher for families trying to
buy it on their own -- the answer is plainly yes. All the conservative
attacks on a boy from Baltimore who dared to speak out will not make
this issue go away.

In the last congress (109th) Rep. John Doolittle [R-CA], introduced H.R. 5325 to "To direct the Federal Trade Commission to revise the do-not-call
telemarketing rules to permit individuals to opt out of receiving
telephone calls from certain political organizations."

According to govtrack.us this bill was introduced in May of 2006 and has gone no where.

Not surprising as there are few politicians that would vote to shut off their most effective and cost efficient way to contact voters and constituents.

In fact, the latest action on the bill was:

May 15, 2006:
Referred to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Of course, if this bill went anywhere, there would be no need for the National Political Do Not Contact Registry to be in existence.

August 02, 2007

According to testimony by Lydia Parnes, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission,

Consumers have registered more than 146 million telephone numbers since the Registry became operational in June 2003, and the Do Not Call program has been tremendously successful in protecting consumers’ privacy from unwanted telemarketing calls. A Harris Interactive® Survey released in January 2006 showed that 94% of American adults have heard of the Registry and 76% have signed up for it.29 Ninety-two percent of those polled reported receiving fewer telemarketing calls.

Twenty-seven of the Commission’s telemarketing cases have alleged Do Not Call violations, resulting in $8.8 million in civil penalties and $8.6 million in redress or disgorgement ordered.

Registration on the Do Not Call list is only valid for five years from
the date you initially register, or when a telephone number is no
longer valid. For example.if you were among the first group of
registrants in 2002, you must re-register by September 15, 2007, or
your number will be dropped from the Do Not Call list on November 1,
2007.

states that we are not a
nation divided between red states and blue states, urban and rural,
secular and spiritual. The problem facing our society is in fact much
deeper and more troubling: We are a nation in retreat from politics
and public life.

This is a profound and deeply troubling observation.

I fear, however, that it is true.

Personally I know many people who have given up on politics and politicians. People who have given up on America and what the American ideal is. Think about the rise of the "exurb" and gated communities. These are simply manifestations of the desire of people to retreat from the public space to take care of their own.

What do you think about this statement?

How would you suggest moving beyond "red" and "blue"?

How can we as a nation and a people have civil discourse? Have we ever?